Rafat rants

Rafat rants: Man. Rafat Ali is steamed. He “rants” (his word, not mine) righteously (my word, not his) that ASME is clueless about the National Magazine Award it hands out in the online category and that it doesn’t know how to address the online sector, and adds, “but neither does the magazine industry, in general.” (Side note: I’d like to throw in a welcome greeting to anyone who may discover this post in a future Google search of the phrase “ASME is clueless”) This is why I start my day off with a cup of coffee and PaidContent.org. Rafat needs to do more of this angry blogging because once he gets started, he rolls:

..the National Magazine Awards, which are among the most prestigious for its sector, have been announced. And CNET News.com won the “General Excellence Online” award this year. If your reaction is “Huh, since when did News.com become a print or even online magazine?”, then you’ll concur with me: The Awards’ entry criteria is all whacked. Cracked.

Ok, so maybe ASME’s own description might be of some help: “This category recognizes outstanding magazine Internet sites, as well as online-only magazines and Weblogs, that have a significant amount of original content. It honors sites that reflect an outstanding level of interactivity, journalistic integrity, service and innovative visual presentation.”

Pray, why would you consider News.com to be an online magazine? What is an online magazine? It is a matter of semantics, but in the wrong usage of semantics lies the irony: ASME is clueless about dishing out these awards. It does not know how to address the online sector, but neither does the magazine industry, in general.

That “Weblogs” bit above: since when did ASME started including blogs? Why didn’t the blog world know about it? A desperate attempt to be hip, if you ask me…

Why I am I bothered: I’m sick of this whole “awards cabal”…something needs to change.

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Launched in August, 2000, RexBlog.com is the personal blog of Rex Hammock, founder/ceo of Hammock Inc., a customer media and marketing services company founded in 1991 in Nashville. Rex is also founder/helper-in-chief of SmallBusiness.com.(...)